bullets13

It's hard to do, and I don't expect it, or require it to consider him a good coach. As I've said multiple times, I take exception to his opinion of himself and a couple of his close friends and family that come on here and try to inflate his reputation, not to what he's done in Lumberton. That said, two wins over mediocre teams and then a 35-point loss to the first good team you meet is not a "playoff run."

According to people on here they were until they had a lot of injuries, which is the only reason they didn't get in. So at the beginning of the year they should've been decent. That said, if we're giving him credit for beating 2A and 3A teams, then we have to give him credit for losing by 60 to silsbee and 40 to Nederland and 30 to HF and only winning 4 district games and losing 10 games by 10+ on the year, right? Again, I'm not saying this guy is a bad coach, but there's a whole network of connected posters on here who give him all of the credit for everything good that happens, and excuse all of the bad. This is what I take exception to.

I don't like him because he keeps making new screen names and coming on here and talking about how great he is, and how bad other coaches are. As for coaching, I don't have any issue with him as a coach, but he's been very fortunate at Lumberton with them dropping classifications and having a D1 player drop in his lap. That in itself is just part of coaching, and I don't fault him for it. I just take exception to the folks (including "not him") that have declared him an elite coach, one of the best in the area, etc. etc., when he's won a couple of playoff games against .500 and below teams and had one really good regular season, despite dropping from an exceptional 5A district to 4A, and despite having the services of the best L-town player in the program's history for 4 years. The fact that he won 1 district game in 5A, and then missed the playoffs the first year McClure is gone, has me curious to see what happens the next couple of years over there.

I mean, he's not wrong. And with the whole weird Aggie network situation there's never going to be a shortage of people willing to help pay for them. I really don't like the direction the sport is going. They need to put a cap on what a player can make or you're just going to have bidding wars for every player.

Joubert and Foster are great coaches, but you're also talking about 2A and 3A schools. while both have good teams, neither is near what they were 7-8 years ago. There was a time when those schools could beat highly ranked teams in divisions above them (and were even expected to), but they're both at a point right now where a decent 4A team SHOULD beat them most of the time. Beating those teams isn't meaningless, but it's hardly a feather in your cap these days for bigger schools like it used to be.

I know you're being sarcastic, but he definitely was carried some by mcclure. How much is yet to be seen. next season should tell us a lot. that said, he's obviously not terrible.

I get what you’re saying. But the actions of the board over the years make it pretty obvious to me, even if they’re not naming it “Suck It, Getz” stadium.

Agreed. He’s done some good things over there, but he’s benefited from some very fortuitous circumstances. I’m curious to see what he does over the next year or two without McClure. This year they struggled, but they had some injuries.

Sure. Or obvious, if you lived and worked through it like I did.

I know some of y'all think I'm a "hater", but there are several accounts on here that suspiciously show up in certain situations and throw Mitchell's name into conversations, and they generally give him too much credit. I'll preface this by saying I think he's done fine over at Lumberton. Their record has improved under him, and I do think he has something to do with that. That said, he also gets a lot of credit for a couple of things that he had nothing to do with. The first key to Lumberton's newfound success is that year after he took over Lumberton they dropped to 4A after previously having to play in one of the best 5A districts in the state with PAM, Nederland, Central, and Ozen. His record his first year in which he coached in that district was no better than the guy that came before him (9-17, 1-11). The second lucky break for him was Brock McClure. He's coached at Lumberton 5 years. The year in 5A he went 1-11 in district. The year in 4A without McClure he had basically a .500 team, and 4-8 in district. The three years in 4A with McClure he made the playoffs 3 times, had one really good season, and won three total playoff games against sub-.500 or .500 teams. How much is mitchell and how much is McClure and the drop to 4A? I'm really curious to see what he does next year. I don't think it's realistic to expect much more than what Lumberton did this year, but if they return to what they should be without a D1 player (.500ish, fighting for fourth most years) then you have to stop crowning Mitchell as rehabilitation mastermind as well, and just say he does a pretty good job out in Lumberton. All of the talk of him being an elite coach and whatnot is premature, especially with only one truly good season under his belt at Lumberton in 5 years (a season where he beat two mediocre teams in the playoffs before getting doubled up by Huffman in the 3rd round).

Come on, man. there is no two sides to this. If they were arguing about spending money to change it to something like Alex Durley Stadium then there would be two sides. This is nothing but a spiteful move to shove Thomas back in the face of the people who vocally opposed the school board and Thomas and that brought to light all of the corruption that got the district taken over to begin with.

Like a leaked internal memo or something? Of course there's nothing like that. But one only has to ask themselves why the board has (soon to be twice now) elected to name the stadium after a disgraced superintendent under whom the entire district was run into the ground. The answer is obvious. There are several obvious choices of people of color to name the stadium after who are much more deserving and would elicit a supportive response from the community. Instead they're once again going with a crook, and there's only one reason to do that.

Hey look, Butler just did once what Luka does 5 games out of 6!

without a doubt. that was a tongue in cheek remark directed at a certain poster who's determined that any coach who doesn't win a state championship within 7 years is an abject failure for all time.

Calling Men ‘Bald’ Counts as Sexual Harassment, UK Tribunal Rules (msn.com)

He got out while the getting was good. Only had 2 years left to win a state championship before he was labeled a failure forever. Quick question: if he took a team that was 0-10 the year before he arrived and went 1-8 his first year, and then 21-13 the next four years, was he a success without a state championship? He also took a program with only 11 kids coming out his first year and had 50 come out to play last season.

It is absolutely this, and nothing more. It's a shame.

This infuriates me. I worked for BISD for 15 years, including when all of this happened. It's absolutely jaw-dropping how many people were stealing from BISD during the time of the bond, and many of them were under the direct supervision of Thomas. There were dozens of examples of fraud, theft, cronyism, etc (Report details misuse of Beaumont ISD bond funds as Thomas avoided scrutiny (beaumontenterprise.com)). Thomas also benefited from a poorly negotiated contract that saw his base salary nearly triple over the course of 10 years, making him the highest paid superintendent in the state, even though he was doing a poor job leading a fairly poor, fairly small district. The problem is that the people of color in charge weren't concerned about students and the community, only about sticking it to the white man that had held them down for so long. Calvin Walker bilked BISD for millions of dollars. The majority African American schoolboard under Butch Thomas actually voted to renew his yearly contract AFTER he'd been charged with stealing millions from the district, and had taken a plea deal where he forfeited millions of dollars that he'd stolen from BISD (BISD Board of Trustees react to Calvin Walker's mistrial | 12newsnow.com). The school board voted NOT TO SEEK TO HAVE THE MONEY HE STOLE REPAID, even though more than $2M he stole was available to them!!! (BISD renews Walker's contract, votes against more restitution information (ctinsider.com)) The district and school board chose to let the feds keep the money Walker had stolen from them rather than admitting that he had stolen from them. Here is a list of thefts and scams that the district knew about Walker committing at the time that they renewed his contract ( Calvin Walker jury selection to start in Beaumont | 12newsnow.com). My personal favorite is the $600,000 he charged BISD to cover the cost of renting bucket trucks to complete work he'd been hired to do. He did this even though he already owned bucket trucks, and did not need to rent any Under Thomas the district spent tens of thousands of dollars on copies of (low quality) books full of misinformation written by communication director Jessie Haynes (Problem with BISD book is source, not contents (beaumontenterprise.com) During Thomas' reign, the BISD Comptroller and Director of Finance were both arrested and convicted for stealing more than $4M (Former Beaumont ISD Employees Sentenced for Stealing over $4 Million | USAO-EDTX | Department of Justice). Patricia Lambert, an assistant superintendent under Thomas was convicted of theft and falsifying test scores. BISD also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for her son to print items for BISD, even though he did not have a printing business. He simply paid a real printing business to print these items and then charged BISD a marked up price (Former Beaumont ISD Assistant Superintendent Guilty of Federal Charges — FBI). As everyone knows, his leadership was so poor that the district was eventually taken over by the state (TEA announces takeover of BISD, New superintendent to be appointed | 12newsnow.com). Thomas took off before anything could stick to him. He still to this day claims that he didn't know anything about the crimes being committed under him. In my opinion if he had no idea all of this was going on, it reflects worse on him than if he was actually involved in the corruption. After all of this, thousands of BISD employees had to go through the stress of seeing if their position ended up on the RIF list, as hundreds of employees were let go in an effort to save money after BISD's finances had been run into the ground. That was one of the most terrifying times of my life, as there was considerable talk about my entire school being shut down in an effort to reduce costs for the district. I literally could go on and on, and on and on and on and on with examples of theft and mismanagement under Thomas. The naming of a stadium after him was entirely racially motivated. the sad part was that it wasn't named after him because he was African American, but instead because naming it after him made white people mad. And now here we go again. There are a dozen plus people of color who could rightfully be honored with BISD's stadium being named after them. There is also the option of finding a sponsor who'll pay for the name. Instead the board is once again putting "sticking it to the man" ahead of responsible spending and putting it's students, staff, and community first.

I hope they get Brunson back. He's perfect alongside Luka because he's willing to take a secondary role when on the floor with Luka, but capable of running the offense when Luka is on the bench.

[Hidden Content]

I currently work for one that does. Coincidentally (or not), our behavior is excellent. Also, due to our male principal being promoted, it appears I will be our school's dispenser of justice next school year.

would be a perfect fit in Dallas. doesn't need the ball a lot, and shoots a high percentage. Imagine the easy baskets he'd get with Luka feeding him.

InMAGAweTrust has been permanently banned. The continual insults and derailing of threads got to be too much. I bring this up because several of you guys have engaged in similar behaviors recently. The one saving grace for y'all is that it almost always involves him, and more times than not is in response to his initial insult. we're going to have a friendly board, even if we disagree sometimes. There are plenty of ways to debate without being downright insulting and talking about people's personal lives. There's plenty of you on here that I've gotten into it with at times, but there's a certain amount of respect involved. Let's keep it that way. Thanks in advance. Comments are locked to avoid this from becoming a bashing thread. Don't want anyone to have to join him.

Yup. If he's THAT good I kind of expect him to start a year at Hardin, generate some interest, and then him and his dad go to a much bigger job as a package deal.

The more I watch Luka the more I think he’s probably the best player in the league. He’s absolutely the most valuable. He’s got Dallas in the western conference finals with one other guy who’s pretty good and 8 role players. He’s got the best average ppg in elimination games in nba history, and he was so good tonight he didn’t even get to play in the 4th quarter and hurt his average a little.